Free agency officially got kicked off at midnight last night with Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey traveling to Philadelphia to pitch Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry on being the team’s third highest priority (after James, Melo, Love) during this summer season. This marks the second point guard whom Houston has relinquished and then later pursued. The team also is rumored to have made contact with the representatives of Paul Pierce and James Johnson in addition to navigating the awkward waters of the Chandler Parsons situation. As has been known since the season ended, Houston also is in pursuit of Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Kevin Love. Anthony, specifically, will meet with the Rockets on Wednesday in Houston before taking a short nap and meeting with Dallas. Or maybe Dallas first, then the nap, then the Rockets. In summary, Houston has targeted most of the major names on the market. Jeremy Lin has hired a realtor.
As I stated some days before in my running commentary on the Anthony/James pursuits, I’ve always been rather curious to know how the semantics play out in these simultaneous pursuits. It’s clear, at least logically speaking, that the Rockets visited Lowry first because they won’t see Anthony until Tuesday. The thinking would go that they then might as well put that first day to good use and feign excitement and priority over someone else. Lebron James is only accepting FaceTime calls via Rich Paul’s iPhone, so Lowry is the natural choice. But how does that conversation go? ”Hey, we love you, we still have your jersey, we got your back if you and Kevin get into it again, we’re willing to overlook the tantrum you threw when Goran Dragic outplayed you, we want you back.”…”Okay, sign me up.”…”Oh wait, wait, wait, wait…can you just, you know….hold off on that a bit? We need to, uh…talk to a few other people.”
The last time we brought back a star point guard after trading him away for a cornerstone shooting guard, Steve Francis ended up playing like a total of four minutes the entire season before seeing his career spiral downward entirely culminating in a rap video which I will NOT link to on this blog. It appeared last night that the initial bid on Lowry’s services would begin at $14.5million before it was discovered that someone had scammed Yahoo!’s Marc J. Spears into the report. This, of course, coming on the heels of the uncomfortable circumstances last week when former ESPN correspondent Ric Bucher reported that a deal between the Raptors and Heat to swap Lowry and Chris Bosh was already in the works, a rumor that turned out to be categorically false. Makes one wonder what the hell is going on up there in Canada.
Aside from the surreality that the obscure fat kid we got back for Rafer Alston is actually one of the top players on the market, I have mixed feelings overall on Lowry. He’s tremendous, yes, but does he really represent that great an upgrade over Patrick Beverley to warrant a salary 12x the amount earned by the team’s incumbent? Beverley, at this stage, is better defensively, (far, far, far better if Lowry is anything close to the matador he became in his final year in Houston), and comparable or even better on the boards, depending on which way you skew the numbers. Lowry is obviously superior on offense. But would he fit next to Harden? Would this not be Jeremy Lin all over again? The distinction, of course, is that Lowry likely would not back down from The Beard’s intimidating gestures, but is that even a good thing? I’ve stated in the past that, salary considerations included, Pat Beverley was the ideal fit at point guard next to Harden. That statement is inclusive of both skillset and interpersonal dynamics. Can you upset that?
It’s obvious what’s going on here, I think. You can’t deal Asik, one of your most valuable pieces, and then strike out with nothing heading into one of Dwight Howard’s last seasons. Lowry represents an upgrade, and if maybe not at the ideal spot, he still gives the team another player. Too often at the end of games last year, the lineup looked like James Harden and four guys who could do nothing on their own. Beverley isn’t exactly an offensive threat.
If you strike out on Anthony and Love, (let’s forget about Lebron), and you trade Lin into capspace, you open up close to $20million, as we’ve delineated and as has been established by the internet. It seems $12million will be the going rate for Lowry, leaving you with $8million to get someone else. Is that enough for Deng or Ariza? Bringing back Trevor Ariza was a nightmare I’ve woken up from far too many times ever since the day he was traded; I don’t think Deng goes for just $8million, though we offer the chance to contend. A smallball lineup of Lowry, Harden, Howard, a re-signed Parsons, and Deng at the ’4′, is, umm, fearsome. But again, I am not of the opinion that Deng goes for just $8million, especially with the Hawks looming. I also am not sure $12million is enough to get Lowry. You are most likely looking at something like Lowry, Paul Pierce, and Spencer Hawes. You could do far worse, but not exactly the scenarios I had envisioned after a Melo coup.
Other thoughts:
-Someone is about to overpay drastically for Chandler Parsons. I’ve prepared myself mentally and emotionally for news of an offer approaching over $12million/annually, especially when giving consideration to how many teams have or can have cap space this summer. If the Rockets are able to get commitments from their other targets, the extra couple of million I do not think will be a concern. Being over is being over, so long as your owner is willing to foot the bill. (Still, we have yet to see whether Les Alexander truly is willing to pay the tax, despite his very public proclamations on that matter every summer).
-The team meets with Anthony tomorrow in their facility, hoping to use, as the Chronicle put it, “gadgetry”, in their pitch to the star free agent. A few things should be noted: 1) it absolutely baffles me when reports come to the surface as to what appeals players find substantive. In my mind, all that matters is money, winning, and location, in whatever order you want to put it. But when you have the Lakers pitching Dwight on their historical legacy (and subsequently Houston as well), and now Houston showing off their lockerroom, it really makes one pause, shedding light into the mind of a professional athlete. Houston campaigned hard last summer on the back of the premise that Dwight would be the latest in a legacy of centers spanning from Hayes, Moses, Hakeem, and Yao. And it worked! I know there was other stuff to the pitch, but by all accounts, it seemed that part of it was appealing to him! Why? Why does that even matter? Similarly, how is having a state of the art video room a significant consideration in this process? It baffles me, but if it works, that’s what you do, and that’s what the Rockets are doing. And as we’ve learned, the Rockets under Morey usually know what they’re doing.
2) Second point, on Anthony. It speaks volumes to how far technology has advanced, and at the rapid speeds at which it has and does, that just four years ago, an Ipad–i.e. the one that was so famously presented to Chris Bosh–was considered a luxury item. That that event was so widely mocked at the time also speaks volumes to how far the Rockets have come.
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Total comments: 22@FSS
you're hanging on to that Durrant dream like a pit bull on a pork chop :lol:dream on who am I to mess with a man's dream ;)
Problem with the durant dream is howard has ETO that year and will be 31 meaning on the decline. If nothing relevant has been achieved by then, he could leave us. Durant just doesn't fit in the rocket's current time frame unfortunately.
Plus short contracts are easier to trade, in case another big fish (a la Kevin Love) becomes available.
Bosh would be great. The defense would be insane. Bosh doesn't get enough credit, but he was the anchor of Miami's defense and far more important than wade.
1) Patterson for 3 years 18 million.
2) Chalmers for 3 years 12 million
3) Vince carter 2 years 9 million
I think that gives us a legit shot at contending assuming they resign Parsons. My question is do the Rockets spend to sign these guys and resign parsons using bird rights or do they just resign parsons and fill the roster up with vet min contracts. I hope they spend.
Damnit!
KD is a FA in 2016.
KD to Houston in 2015!
Amir is not worth that and he is expiring. It would be a lateral move and if we are waiting for 2015 cap space, why not keep our assets and wait until 2015.
I am not sure why most thought Lin is gone. I really think Parsons would be gone but Lin would still be a Rockets.
Rumors said Warriors and Knicks are Lin's suitors and maybe it was. But now they have Calderon and Livingston.
Who will come to our rescue? Sixers? Hinkie might want to do but owner might fire him for that.
Parsons would be gone if somebody offers him big money. History shows Leslie is allergic to luxury tax.
We could strike out on all. Like Rahat pointed out, we are saying "We love you Lowry but wait... I love Melo a bit more, we will be back to you if Melo didn't love us as much as we do, hey Lowry, where were you, I told you I am coming back, wait wait wait........"
Re: Harden , yeah the selfish thing is over the top, though you can't help to notice that the passing thing really stops late in the game, though to be fair that could very likely be a team thing.
What to do when we strike out on everyone : I think only Lowry is semi plausible and even then it's like a 20% shot at best, as for Rahat's question of what to do, one of the ways to consider is trades, you use for example, Dmo + a first (either ours or the Pelicans') and trade for Amir Johnson (i'm not sure if you can get Amir at this price, but something along this line, if you must go up to Jones + 1st.) and then close up the cap with Parsons signing and MLE. (I think you could plausibly squeeze in a Steve Novak in that Amir trade too, though I 'm not exactly sure, it's pretty close.)
The plan when you miss out on the bigger fish would be to try to get as many guys that can play as possible. with this sort of manuvering you end up with something like
Beverly
Harden
Parsons
Amir
Dwight
bench : Lin / Jones or Dmo / Novak / MLE guy / others.
Novak has a lot of limitation, but you can find ways to use him for small roles effectively, his +/- over the last few years have been quiet good espeically when he's used less. MLE guy should at least be an upgrade of Casspi/ Garcia.
More over, as I've advocated many times, Amir is super underrated, he's consistently been in the top 10 RAPM for like the last 4 season, he help teams win, ALOT. the difference between him to Jones this year would be quite large.
Yeah George handled the ball a lot last year, I don't see why stephenson couldn't work with harden offensive positions aren't that big a deal as long as they can guard someone and he can guard 1-3 in most cases, he's basically a bigger better patrick beverley.
Correction: George is 6' 8" in shoes and he sported a higher usg rate than Harden last season: 28.3 to 27.8.
Am I the only one bothered by the public assumption that Harden is some kind of selfish, spoiled brat who doesn't like to share his toys? He averaged 6 assists per game and made assists on 27% of the plays he was on the floor for (which does not count plays that end in fouls or misses). According to NBA.com, Harden averaged 11.7 assist opportunities per game. Harden ranked 19th in "points created by assist" last season.
More importantly, he is fulfilling his role as primary scorer--which nearly every team has. Looking at more NBA.com stats, Harden gets 12 more "touches" per game than Howard, Parsons, and Beverley. He gets 14 more touches than Lin. Really, given his scoring prowess and play-making ability don't we want Harden to have 12 more touches than those guys? I know I do.
George was a 6'10" not very ball dominant SF.
Why would the rockets go after a rising star SG when they have a superstar at SG?
My bet lance goes to the hornets and jordan settles him down. Charlotte should have HCA next year.
Paul Pierce is interesting - he's got the cajones to take the ball from Harden, and he probably respects McHale (Celtic legacy). He doesn't shoot well enough to play next to Harden and Howard frequently - but no one is going to leave him open either.
He's also a 20 minute player at best now, but just interesting that the Rockets reached out to him.
Also, another retread we reached out to was Jordan Hill, and I feel like he's a pretty good fit for this incarnation of the Rockets. That being said, he'll probably be too expensive.
Read that we contacted Sefalosha as well... makes perfect sense, if he can rediscover how to shoot (which made him unplayable in the playoffs).
Minnesota is apparently considering Parsons priority B after Klay Thompson. Maybe we could make a sign and trade there for Love...
ESPN's 5 on 5 also said we should go after Lance Stephenson if we miss out on Melo and Lebron. I love the potential, but I don't think we need the head case... I don't think Howard's goofy attitude would go well with Stephenson's general insanity.
So Yes, the Rockets are in on everyone...
So is Lowry the 3rd or 4th highest priority, I am confused............